An Irish Tale

From Mrs. McCool and the Giant Cuhullin: An Irish Tale by Jessica Souhami

About the story...

This Irish tale makes fun of two of the greatest heroes of Celtic legend--Cuhullin and Finn McCool--who could never have met. Cuhullin's tales are told in the Ulster Cycle of the first century A.D., while Finn McCool's legends appear in the Fenian Cycle of the third century A.D. This tale possibly dates from the sixteenth century when comic parodies of the heroic legends started to appear. In the nineteenth century, when the study of Irish folklore began to flourish, several versions were collected, including William Carleton's 1846 version on which Joseph Jacobs based his 1892 retelling. This version is a very loose adaptation of the tale.

You can read a short retelling of the legend of Finn McCool here at the National Trust website for the Giant Causeway, the World Unesco Site pictured above.